


A New Year Dawning

by rebelmeg



Series: Rebelmeg's Tony Stark Bingo Fills 2019 [27]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Fluff, Insomnia, New Years, Sleepy Cuddles, Tony Stark Has Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22047145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: Pepper can't sleep in the wee hours of the morning.TSB flash square filled: 8 - New YearLadies of Marvel square filled: M1 - confetti
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Rebelmeg's Tony Stark Bingo Fills 2019 [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1448665
Comments: 24
Kudos: 91
Collections: Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2019, Tony Stark Flash Bingo





	A New Year Dawning

**Author's Note:**

> The delightful [Faustess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faustess) was my beta for this fic!

Pepper sat at the kitchen table in the silence of the pre-dawn, a book open in front of her and a nearly empty glass of wine by her hand amidst a few bits of sparkly confetti. Snow was softly falling out the windows, and all the world was quiet.

She didn’t get nightmares, not like Tony did. He would wake up screaming sometimes, shaking and sweating and terrified, disassociating until she could find a way to bring him back. Those nights were the bad ones, when he would cower in her arms, trying to silence his sobs before Morgan got to their room, woken by his screams, trying not to scare her. Other nights, he mumbled in his sleep, tossed and turned, or jumped awake with a gasp and went rigid. All of them broke her heart.

Pepper didn’t dream the way he did. Not in the vivid, fully engaged way that sent his brain into overdrive. Hers were more dim, more abstract, more unsettling than anything, but once they woke her up, she couldn’t go back to sleep.

Tonight was one such night. Despite having stayed up late to ring in the new year, banging the lids of pots and pans together and tooting party horns and watching the brief fireworks show Tony had planned for them, after they had toasted with sparkling apple cider and said their New Year’s resolutions and gone to bed, Pepper had only slept a few hours before waking up again in the confusing throes of a difficult-to-remember nightmare.

She was just starting to get tired again, a few hours later. She’d read a good chunk of her book, had a glass of wine, spent some time just thinking as she watched the snow slowly pile up outside. Taking stock of the past year, so to speak. Despite the heavy snow cover, Pepper could just start to see the sky lightening to the east, the faintest hints of gray tinging what had been black for so long.

“Pep?”

It was an automatic reaction, the smile on her face. The voice calling for her was soft, heavy with sleep, the only sound she could hear. She loved that sound.

Finishing off the last sip of wine, Pepper left the book and glass on the table. She’d take care of them later. She had better places to be. 

She paid no mind to the glitter and confetti that still littered the furniture and floor, thanks to the poppers and crackers Tony and Morgan had been playing with all night long, running around the house squealing and yelling and rolling around on the floor to help keep each other awake until midnight.

Tony blinked blearily at her as she came back to their room, a trail of confetti following her as it fell off her bare feet. “Y’ok?”

“Yeah, just fine.”

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“I can now, I think.”

“Mm, good. Gimme a snuggle.” Stretching out his right arm, the prosthetic one, he beckoned for her to come back to bed.

How could she resist that kind of invitation?

The nano-tech prosthetic was body warm, and had just enough yield to it that it felt almost like a real arm. It didn’t look like one, of course not, it was hot rod red and gold all the way. But its weight around her waist felt right, as did the heartbeat under her ear as she laid her head on her husband’s chest. She smiled when she spied a few speckles of glitter still clinging to his chest and shoulder.

“Time ‘s it?”

“Six ish. We’ve got some time.”

Tony sighed, curling closer towards her, wrapping his other arm around her for good measure as he got her tucked under his chin. “Good. Mine.”

With a suddenly sleepy chuckle, Pepper slipped her arms around him, letting out a sigh of her own. Morgan wouldn’t be up for another couple hours, the seven-year-old had been dead on her feet when they’d finally gone to bed after midnight, confetti and glitter clinging to her long brown hair.

There was no place Pepper would rather be than exactly where she was, as the New Year sun slowly crept closer towards the horizon.


End file.
